Stocks Sink to Multi-Year Lows

By

Steve Goldstein

Updated June 26, 2008 12:23 p.m. ET

LONDON -- Stocks in Europe ended Thursday at their worst closing levels in over two-and-a-half years, with weak U.S. earnings outlooks, a plan by Dutch-Belgian banking group Fortis to issue new shares and strength of the euro all combining to weigh on markets.

With losses that grew by the hour, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 ended the session down 2.6% to 288.48, the worst finish since October 2005. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 sank 2.6%...